Housemates
by Shantak795
Summary: After the end of the manga, Bakura shows up on Ryou's doorstep. A series of standalones. Part of my After-verse.
1. At the Door

When Bakura showed up on Ryou's doorstep, Ryou sighed, shook his head, and let his former yami into the apartment, slipping the knife back up his sleeve* and hoping that the ex-thief hadn't noticed.

By Bakura's smirk, he probably had.

Ryou busied himself by getting out the spare futon (that they'd never had to use for years - it wasn't like people ever stayed over) and tried not to wonder just _how_ the former spirit had gotten himself a body.

And it was pretty clearly Bakura's body, or a decent replica thereof - tall, tan, muscular, with chopped-short white hair and eyes that sometimes seemed blueish and sometimes reddish, depending on the light. And one hell of a nasty scar that probably should've ruined that eye.

Ryou hadn't been in the Memory World, hadn't actually seen Bakura's real form, but the way the thief moved was just too natural for it _not_ to be his body. Even at the end, after all those years of sharing Ryou's body, he'd always been ever-so-slightly hesitant when it came to actually doing anything. Ever-so-slightly off on his timing. Not so as anyone would notice, but enough that Bakura hadn't felt up to really resuming a life of crime.

Thankfully. He'd caused enough trouble as it was.

And now Bakura was looking at him funny, and Ryou realized he was staring.

"Yadonushi?" he asked, and Ryou noted idly that while Bakura had obviously retained Ryou's knowledge of Japanese, he'd somehow acquired an accent.

"Hm?"

Bakura was not by nature a hesitant person. But he was hesitating now, hovering in the bedroom doorway, looking like he was getting ready to bolt, and Ryou realized that for all his assured confidence at the front door, Bakura really was unsure of his welcome.

Ryou smiled faintly, unsettling Bakura further, and motioned to the futon. "You don't mind, do you?"

Bakura shook his head, leaning warily against the doorframe.

"It'll be interesting trying to explain you to Father, whenever he next bothers to drop by."

"Nn," Bakura said, still warily watching Ryou.

"And Bakura," Ryou said as he drew even with him, "if I find you sticking souls in my figurines again, you're out on the curb." He graced the skittish thief with his sweetest fake smile.

And Bakura laughed.

----

*The way I see it, _something _of Bakura had to rub off on Ryou.


	2. A Few Questions

"Bakura?" It _still_ felt odd to call him that, Ryou thought. That was _his_ name, dammit.

"Hm?" Bakura looked up from where he had been intently peeling an orange.

"How _did_ you get here, anyway?"

Bakura smirked, turning back to his orange. He _liked_ oranges. He'd stolen one from an Indian caravan, once, and had been pleasantly surprised when he'd woken up a few years back and discovered them in the markets here.

"Bakura?" And now Ryou was looking really suspicious.

"Let's just say it's a good thing we know Malik Ishtar."

Ryou blinked.

Bakura's smirk widened. "_He_ got into the country illegally while completely off his rocker. _I'm _sane," he glared when Ryou snorted, "and _much_ sneakier. It wasn't all that hard." Bakura sat back, grinning at the peeled fruit in triumph. "And then I just pestered Kaiba until he broke and agreed to forge the necessary paperwork for me. Good thing most 'paperwork' these days is electronic..."

"You are entirely too smug about this, you know?"

Bakura grinned again. "Yep."

Ryou was looking at him with a resigned expression. "I don't want to know how you got into Kaiba's office in the first place, do I?"

"Probably not," Bakura agreed, smirking again.

"_Bakura..._"

"I climbed through his window."

Ryou spluttered. "That's thirty stories* up!"

"Yep. Took a while."

"And do I even _want_ to know what his reaction was?"

"What do you think? He tried to shove me back out the window."

Ryou started laughing a kind of helpless, disbelieving laugh.

"So I told him if he didn't knock it off, I'd prove to him that I really _do_ have enough blackmail material to last a lifetime and start telling Yugi every embarrassing story concerning him that I remember."

Ryou stared at him. "You barely spoke two words to him until this." Then paused. "Oh."

Bakura's smirk turned nasty. "I _told_ you, didn't I? And I was _right._" He started to laugh. "Oh, just wait until everyone else figures it out."

And Ryou was grinning now, too. "Does Mokuba know?"

"Given how he was pestering me for those stories _anyway... _I'd guess yes."

-----

*Actually, possibly more. But I think the height of KaibaCorp's main building varies across panels.


End file.
